Did you know that the government not only expects to hold a large amount of detainees behind bars due to immigration arrests, but that there are actual minimum guarantees that they strive to meet? On the federal level, or the nation-wide level, that number is 34,000 individuals. That is how many people the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — commonly known as ICE — has to keep locked up every single day. This is mandated by the U.S. Congress, and it has been now since 2009.
However, new reports now show that there are also local-level minimums being used in many places, including Florida. While the federal minimum has been understood for some time, the exposure of these low-level minimums is rather new.
There are 15 such centers across the United States, all of which have been promised minimum numbers. Two of them are the Krome Processing Center, which is located in Miami, and the Broward Transitional Center, which can be found in Pompano Beach.
Those two centers will get a total of 950 people every single day between them. When looking at the totals for all of the centers, they will get 8,522 individuals.
This practice has been called into questions by some in the industry, who say that it goes against the traditional sense of American justice. They also claim that it is a way in which taxpayers’ funds are being wasted. The cost of this at the federal level has been estimated to be around $2 billion.
When arrested and detained over these types of issues, it’s important to know exactly how immigration law works and what rights one has.
Source: Miami Herald, “The detention bed mandate goes local,” Ted Deutsch, June 14, 2015
